As we all know the story goes this or that way. A woman in her sixties finds herself divorced when her husband decides to get married for the fourth time. Another woman is divorced after 40 years of hard “marital” work and finds herself without a home or a source of income.

Why can’t divorcees be compensated financially from their husbands’ assets in return for all the years she spent living with him? Don’t you think that such a thing is consistent with the idea that marriage is a partnership? Wouldn’t having to pay compensation make the man think twice before divorcing his wife for superficial reasons?

These questions come to my mind every time I hear of a compensation awarded in the West to a divorced woman. Last Wednesday, for instance, I read in a newspaper that Sir Paul McCartney’s wife, Heather Mills, had been awarded £48 million as a divorce settlement after being married for four years. Sir Paul agreed to offer her this amount if she would drop the charges against him, claiming half his fortune for beating her.

In spite of this huge award in the UK, it can’t be compared to some cases in the US. Americans look at marriage as a family partnership with the couple having equal rights. If one of the partners wants to leave for some reason, the other might have to pay half his/her assets to the other. Despite the fact that men are usually the ones who pay the settlement, there are many cases in which women have paid their ex-husbands. The well-known actress Jane Fonda paid her husband Tom Hayden $120 million for a marriage that lasted 16 years. And the well-known pop singer, Madonna, had to pay a million dollars to get rid of her husband, Sean Pen.

Sharing these huge sums of money is due to ethical standards that allow sharing the family properties by the divorced couple.

Women who are married for more than 20 years receive 50 percent of the family’s assets. If the marriage lasts for 10 years or less, the woman has the right to claim 30 percent of the assets and certain valuable possessions. The least thing divorced women should get is financial compensation to make up for all that they have had to put up with and all that they have been through.